Violet Hunt
| birth_name = Isabel Violet Hunt | birth_place = Durham, England | death_date = January | death_place = Campden Hill, London, England | occupation = Novelist, short story writer | notableworks = The Maiden's Progress The Human Interest White Rose of Weary Leaf Tales of the Uneasy }} Isobel Violet Hunt (28 September 1862 – 16 January 1942) was an English poet, prose author, and literary hostess.Biographical information, Finding Aid for the Violet Hunt Manuscript Notebook, 1873-1911, Online Archive of California. Web, July 3, 2015. Life Hunt was born in Durham, England, the eldest daughter of novelist Margaret Raine Hunt (1831-1912) and artist Alfred William Hunt (1830-1896).Hunt, Violet (1862-1942), OscarWilde.de. Web, July 3, 2015. In 1865 the family moved to London in 1865, where Hunt attended Notting Hill High School and Ealing High School. She published her first poetry in The Century Magazine at age 13. Hunt was brought up in the Pre-Raphaelite group, knowing John Ruskin and William Morris. There is a story that Oscar Wilde, a friend and correspondent, proposed to her in Dublin in 1879. Hunt's writings ranged over a number of literary forms, including short stories, novels, memoir, and biography. She was an active feminist, and her novels The Maiden's Progress and A Hard Woman were works of the New Woman genre, while her short story collection Tales of the Uneasy is an example of supernatural fiction. Her novel White Rose of Weary Leaf is regarded as her best work, while her biography of Elizabeth Siddal is considered unreliable, with animus against Siddal's husband, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. She was also active in writers' organisations, founding the Women Writers' Suffrage League in 1908 and participating in the founding of International PEN in 1921.Barbara Belford, "Hunt, (Isabel) Violet", in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, H.C.G. Matthew and Brian Harrison, eds. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), vol. 28, p. 875. Despite her considerable literary output, Hunt's reputation rests more with the literary salons she held at her home, South Lodge, in Campden Hill. Among her guests were Rebecca West, Ezra Pound, Joseph Conrad, Wyndham Lewis, D.H. Lawrence, and Henry James. She helped Ford Madox Hueffer (later known as Ford Madox Ford) establish The English Review in 1908. Many of these people were subsequently characterised in her novels, most notably Their Lives and Their Hearts. Though never married, Hunt carried on a number of relationships, mostly with older men. Among her lovers were Somerset Maugham and H.G. Wells, though her most notable affair was with the married Hueffer, who lived with her from about 1910 to 1918 at her home South Lodge (a period including his brief 1911 imprisonment). She was fictionalised by him in two novels: as the scheming Florence Dowell in The Good Soldier and as the promiscuous Sylvia Tietjens in his tetralogy Parade's End. She was also the inspiration for the character Rose Waterfield in W. Somerset Maugham's novel The Moon and Sixpence and Nora Nesbit in Of Human Bondage. She is also the basis for Claire Temple, the central character of Norah Hoult's There Were No Windows (1944). Hunt also wrote two collections of supernatural stories, Tales of the Uneasy and More Tales of the Uneasy.Mike Ashley, "HUNT, (Isobel) Violet" In the St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost, and Gothic Writers, edited by David Pringle. Detroit: St. James Press/Gale, 1998, ISBN 1558622063 (p. 285-287). Tales of the Uneasy was described by E. F. Bleiler as containing "Excellent stories, in which the supernatural is used as a technical device to indicate ironies of fate and the intimate relationship of life and death." E. F. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction. Kent, Ohio : Kent State University Press, 1983. Tales of the Uneasy was also included by horror historian R. S. Hadji on his list of "unjustly neglected" horror books.R.S. Hadji, "13 Neglected Masterpieces of the Macabre", in Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone Magazine, July–August 1983. TZ Publications, Inc. (p. 62) Violet Hunt died of pneumonia in her home in 1942. Her grave and those of her parents are in the Glades of Remembrance at Brookwood Cemetery. Publications Novels *''The Maiden's Progress: A novel in dialogue. London: Osgood, McIlvaine, 1894; New York: Harper, 1894; **also published as ''The Maiden's Progress; or, The adventures of a girl. London: Chapman & Hall, 1986. *''A Hard Woman: A story in scenes. London: Chapman & Hall, 1895; New York: Appleton, 1895. *''The Way of Marriage. London: Chapman & Hall, 1896. *''Unkist, Unkind! A romance''. London: Chapman & Hall, 1897; New York: Harper, 1898. *''The Human Interest: A study in incompatibilities. Chicago & New York: H.S. Stone, 1899. *The Celebrity at Home. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1904; London: Chapman & Hall, 1904. *''Sooner Or Later: The story of an ingenious ingenue. London: Chapman & Hall, 1904. *[https://archive.org/details/workadaywoman00hunt The Workaday Woman]. London: T. Werner Laurie, 1906. *[https://archive.org/details/whiteroseofweary00hunt White Rose Of Weary Leaf]. London: Heinemann, 1908. *[https://archive.org/details/wifeofaltamont00hunt The Wife of Altamont]. London: Heinemann, 1910; New York: Brentano's, 1910. *''The Doll: A happy story''. London: S. Paul, 1911. *''The Governess'' (with Margaret Raine Hunt). London: Chatto & Windus, 1912. *''The Celebrity's Daughter''. London: S. Paul, 1912; New York: Brentano's, 1914. *''The House of Many Mirrors''. London: S. Paul, 1915; New York: Brentano's, 1915. *''Zeppelin Nights: A London entertainment'' (with Ford Madox Hueffer). London & New York, 1916. *''Their Lives''. London: S. Paul, 1916. *[https://archive.org/details/cu31924013628494 The Last Ditch]. London: S. Paul, 1918. *''Their Hearts''. London: S. Paul, 1921. Short fiction *''Affairs of the Heart''. London: S.T. Freemantle, 1900. *[https://archive.org/details/TalesOfTheUneasy Tales of the Uneasy]. London: Heinemann, 1911. *''The Tiger Skin''. London: Heinemann, 1924. *''More Tales of The Uneasy''. London: Heinemann, 1925. Non-fiction *''The Desirable Alien: At home in Germany.'' (with Ford Madox Hueffer). London: Chatto & Windus, 1913. *''The Flurried Years'' (autobiography). London: Hurst & Blackett, 1926; **published in U.S. as I Have This To Say: The story of my flurried years. New York: Boni & Liveright, 1926. *''The Wife of Rossetti: Her life and death''. London: John Lane, 1932; New York: Dutton, 1932. Juvenile *[https://archive.org/details/cat00hunt The Cat]. London: A. & C. Black, 1905; **also published as The Life Story Of A Cat. London: A. & C. Black, 1910; **published in U.S. as Kitty Purrpuss: The memoir of a cat. New York: A.L. Chatterton, 1913. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Violet Hunt, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, July 4, 2015. See also *List of British poets References * * * Notes External links *Violet Hunt in Poetry: A magazine of verse, 1912-1922: "A Call in Hell," "What the Civilian Saw," Is It Worth While?" ;Books * ;Audio / video *[Violet Hunt at Librivox Category:British women short story writers Category:British women novelists Category:1862 births Category:1942 deaths Category:English horror writers Category:People educated at Notting Hill & Ealing High School Category:People from Durham, County Durham Category:Writers from London Category:19th-century British novelists Category:19th-century women writers Category:20th-century British novelists Category:20th-century women writers Category:Women horror writers